Pete Magill (who, if memory serves, ran a 14:50 5K at Cascade when he was 47) posted a piece from Running Times on the 5K, Solving the 5K Puzzle. He does not, however, want us to think he’s resuming his blogging. It’s an article in which there has been some demand. I did a 5000 on the track a few years back. I asked Erin, a teammate who ran for Wake Forest, for suggestions. She said, break it up into quarter segments and go through each. Great, I thought, until about 600 in I realized that I was barely into the first quarter of the race and couldn’t imagine how long it would take. I went into the lead — it was a Masters Race — at about half-way, and GD stayed on my shoulder until absolutely blowing me away with 400 or so to go. Still, it was an experience, albeit one I’m not ready to jump into again.

NYCRuns

I’ve added a link to NYCRuns. It’s a project of Steve Lastoe to try to bring information about the NYC running community together. I’ve had a number of email exchanges with him, and he really wants it to be a valuable resource. Worth a look. (Full disclosure: Steve asked to use one of my posts on the site. I said yes.)

On Episode 88 of my show this week, I mistakenly said that the “Dump Runners Club” referred to the toilet. When listening to that show, I mis-heard public works facilities as “public facilities”, which I took to mean toilets. I apologize to my listeners for my honest mistake.

Hey, how about an apology to Matt? I don’t know the difference between an honest and a dishonest mistake, but I wonder what the backstory is on this one. Matt has the only solo podcast to which I listen and he’ll be joining me on May 19 on the RunnersRoundTable for the topic, Reasons Not To Run A Marathon. In case you missed it, in addition to Flo, JT has been Mulling Over The Marathon. A few more and we’ll have ourselves a movement.

Speaking of Massachusetts — and bonus points if you got the connection — Monday is Patriots’ Day. If you know someone who’s running, you can get “Athletic Alerts” from various spots on the course. When I did NY 2006 I recall passing the 5K mat and thinking, “Now everyone knows I’m committed.” Right now I’m tracking Nos. 2384, 7073, 7774, 13897, and 15771. If you’re doing it and want another tracker, let me know.

Men and Women Racing

Here’s a piece from Science of Sport, “The abolition of gender categories in sport: a sound argument?” I threw a couple of comments up, including something interesting about horses from Slate, but I don’t think it makes sense for runners. I do like the idea of separate marathons though. I’ve long since passed from caring whether any women are ahead of me in races; in NYRR races, there will always be plenty of women ahead of me. Except at the Club Champs. Separate races.

That didn’t take long. A bit over two weeks after posting that one must bookmark Pete Magill’s Younger Legs site, he is pulling the plug, as he says, “there just isn’t enough time in the day.” Now I’m thinking that the suggestion recently that I may actually run NY led Ryan Hall to opt for Chicago. I mean, I did run the NYC HM and Geb did drop out. Coincidence?

Actually, Hall’s going to Chicago is no surprise. Doing the Boston/New York duo twice in a row (2009 and 2010) would have meant he didn’t do a speed race, as Chicago is. My guess is that he’ll only do London in 2011 and then prep for the OT in Houston in January 2012.

For its part, NY will be announcing a couple of big names tomorrow, when it will be simulcasting the lottery results. (Also, I’ll be hosting another RunnersRoundTable at 7pm, after which I’m off the air until a program “Reasons Not to Run a Marathon” on May 19.)

Pete Magill’s Younger Legs for Older Runners is on my Must-Read links. The site has a great drill video and I’ve noted a good interview he had with Scott Douglas on Running Times’ podcast, which has helped me slow things down.

You’d think the guy wearing No. 1 would know to get out of the way. Or am I being picky?

Pete Magill, Christopher McDougall

Colin of Resurrected Runner forwarded me a link from Pete Magill’s Younger Legs site on barefoot running, etc. [FIXED LINK] [Edited to add: I watched about 25 minutes of the McDougall tape. While I’ve heard him before, as on Brandon’s Marathon, he never seemed as obnoxious and unlikeable as he does here.]